Why we should bury the power lines

By David Frum, CNN Contributor

Updated 3:11 PM ET, Thu February 13, 2014

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Southeast storm moves north – Vehicles are piled up in an wreck Friday, February 14, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Traffic accidents involving multiple tractor-trailers and dozens of cars completely blocked one side of the Pennsylvania Turnpike outside Philadelphia.

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Southeast storm moves north – A pedestrian walks through a cloud of steam on a snowy street in New York on February 14. Commuters faced slick roads after a winter storm brought snow and ice to the East Coast.

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Southeast storm moves north – A traveler walks through Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on February 14. Numerous flights were canceled and delayed this week as a result of the snowstorm that pounded a huge section of the country.

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Southeast storm moves north – People dig out vehicles buried in snow in Albany, New York, on February 14.

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Southeast storm moves north – Chris Starace works to clear snow from his roof in Ossining, New York, on Thursday, February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Snow and ice cover an Atlanta neighborhood on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – People walk through the snow on February 13 in Brooklyn, New York.

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Southeast storm moves north – The lower Manhattan skyline is seen behind a pile of snow in Brooklyn on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – After spending the night at Reagan National Airport, Ernie Harmon of Long Island, New York, watches a movie while waiting for his flight February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Snow covers cars in Brooklyn on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Claire Lamborne removes snow from her car in Warrenton, Virginia, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A snowman is seen in front of a hardware store in Washington on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Don Hammond of Newtown, Connecticut, shovels his driveway as snow continues to fall February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A long line of travelers winds around the atrium of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on February 13 as people attempt to catch flights previously canceled because of the massive winter storm.

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Southeast storm moves north – Rescue workers in Oxon Hill, Maryland, attempt to upright an overturned tractor-trailer on Interstate 495 on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Snow collects at the base of escalators at the Dupont Circle Metro Station in Washington on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A postal worker makes his delivery rounds through blizzard conditions in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Motorists push a vehicle on Highway 70 in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 13, a day after the worst of the storm struck the town.

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Southeast storm moves north – A man helps push a car in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Snow blankets a street in Ossining, New York, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A traveler kills time as work crews continue to clear snow from the runways at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A man in Bethlehem helps push a stranded motorist February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Lyall MacFee shovels snow in front of Sciortino's Pizzeria in Albany, New York, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A man digs out a small snowplow that got stuck while clearing snow from a sidewalk in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A man braces his umbrella while walking through the wind and snow in New York City on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Police work to tow a bus that slid off the road in Philadelphia on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A man walks along the snow-covered Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A woman covers her face while walking in New York City on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A worker clears a snowy sidewalk in Washington on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – Cars sit covered in snow on a street in Manassas, Virginia, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A man in Philadelphia shields his face from the elements February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – A snowplow removes snow from the sidewalk in Washington's Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, on February 13.

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Southeast storm moves north – People walk through snow February 13 in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York City.

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Southeast storm moves north – People help push a car stuck in the snow February 13 in Alexandria, Virginia.

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Southeast storm moves north – Kevin Miller looks out the passenger window of his friend's car as they sit stuck in traffic during a winter storm in Raleigh on Wednesday, February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – Traffic moves slowly along Wade Avenue in Raleigh on February 12. Motorists were encouraged to stay off roads.

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Southeast storm moves north – Katharine Newton, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, calls her parents February 12 while walking more than two miles from campus to her parents' home.

Southeast storm moves north – A downed power line is draped across several vehicles in Atlanta on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – A police officer redirects traffic in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – Ice coats trees hanging over a sign for the Broadway at the Beach tourist attraction in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – A sign warns drivers of winter weather as they travel on a bleak section of Highway 141 in Norcross, Georgia, on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – A truck in Bossier City, Louisiana, blocks access to Interstate 220, which was closed because of icy conditions on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – City workers spread a mixture of sand and salt on an intersection in Avondale Estates, Georgia, on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – Ice and snow cover Interstate 26 in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – Shmetrice Moore, a nurse at an Emory University hospital in Johns Creek, Georgia, scrapes snow and ice off her windshield as she and others are released early from their shift on February 12.

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Southeast storm moves north – Hossam Shalaby waits for his rescheduled flight under a departure board at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Tuesday, February 11.

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Southeast storm moves north – A vehicle travels in Greenville, South Carolina, on February 11.

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Southeast storm moves north – People shop for what is left at a Publix grocery store in Decatur, Georgia, on February 11.

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Southeast storm moves north – Vehicles slowly make their way over a snow-covered Route 35 in Fort Payne, Alabama, on February 11.

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Southeast storm moves north – Weather data is projected onto the face of Clint Perkins, director of state operations for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, as he works in Atlanta on February 11.

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Southeast storm moves north – A vehicle drives through falling snow on the U.S. 421 bypass in Sanford, North Carolina, on February 11.

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Story highlights

David Frum: Hundreds of thousands of Americans lost power in snowstorms this week

He says this happens regularly in U.S., but not in Germany, where power lines are buried

Some say it would be too costly to bury power lines; he says cost creates benefits

Frum: It's a project that would benefit many, create jobs; our grandchildren will thank us

Congratulations: If you're reading this, there's a good chance you still have electricity. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Americans hit by winter weather in the South this week couldn't join you. And ice and storms making their way north threaten loss of power stretching to Vermont.

Why do Americans tolerate such outages?

They are not inevitable. The German power grid has outages at an average rate of 21 minutes per year.

The winds may howl. The trees may fall. But in Germany, the lights stay on.

David Frum

There's no Teutonic engineering magic to this impressive record. It's achieved by a very simple decision: Germany buries almost all of its low-voltage and medium-voltage power lines, the lines that serve individual homes and apartments. Americans could do the same. They have chosen not to.

The choice has been made for reasons of cost. The industry rule of thumb is that it costs about 10 times as much to bury wire as to string wire overhead: up to $1 million per mile, industry representatives claim. Since American cities are much less dense than European ones, there would be a lot more wire to string to serve a U.S. population than a European one.

1. There's reason to think that industry estimates of the cost of burying wires are inflated. While the U.S. industry guesstimates costs, a large-scale study of the problem conducted recently in the United Kingdom estimated the cost premium at 4.5 to 5.5 times the cost of overhead wire, not 10 times.

3. Costs can only be understood in relation to benefits. As the climate warms, storms and power outages are becoming more common. And as the population ages, power failures become more dangerous. In France, where air conditioning is uncommon, a 2003 heat wave left 10,000 people dead, almost all of them elderly. If burying power lines prevented power outages during the hotter summers --and icier winters -- ahead, the decision could save many lives.

4. As you may have heard, many Americans remain unemployed. Joblessness is acute among less educated workers, many of whom used to work in the depressed construction industry. Burying power lines is a project that could put many hundreds of thousands of the unemployed to work at tasks that make use of their skills and experience.

The Obama stimulus failed to produce many projects of lasting benefit to the country. Yet even now, borrowing costs remain low for governments and large ultilities. Burying power lines is a public works project for the 21st century that our children and grandchildren would appreciate -- and that might save our parents' lives.